Top prosecutor signs indictment for fugitive Ukrainian MP

The runaway MP is now officially wanted.

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Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has signed the indictment papers for Oleksandr Onishchenko three weeks after the Verkhovna Rada stripped him of parliamentary immunity, the press service of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office said on 27 July.

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office submitted the document to be signed to Lutsenko in mid-July, but the chief prosecutor returned it for revision due to a number of inaccuracies.

On July 5, the Verkhovna Rada has agreed to open criminal prosecution, detention and arrest of Onishchenko. National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office jointly drafted the indictment papers to the PGO

Onishchenko was reported to flee the country. Officially, he is a witness in criminal proceedings and will be persecuted only after the submission indictment in absentee and be put on the wanted list.

Onishchenko is charged of 3 billion hryvnia in embezzlement through gas extraction schemes. Investigators believe that the gas extracted by Onishchenko's companies jointly with state-owned Ukrgasdobycha was sold through fictitious commodity exchanges at a lower price, redeemed by Onishchenko-associated companies and sold at market prices.

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